Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [172]
ROBERT ROTH The flannel and the long hair and the Doc Martens, that kinda was passé in Seattle when all of a sudden it hit in late ’91, early ’92. It was like watching it happen all over again.
JONATHAN PONEMAN I got a call from an editor at Vogue magazine who wanted me to write a piece about grunge fashion, which I did. Some people said, “Why are you doing that?” And I said, “Are you kidding me?” It was like performance art—just the idea that I, who is as much of a fashion spaz as anybody that I’ve ever known, would be writing something for Vogue magazine.
Plus it was a couple thousand bucks, and it was a kick. I wrote it hours before my final deadline, and they threw it in there practically unedited, just to fill space. It was a really poorly written piece of tripe. But it was, “Hey, look, Mom, I’m writing for Vogue.”
LINDA DERSCHANG (Linda’s Tavern/Basic clothing store owner) Jonathan called me up and told me he was writing an article about grunge fashion for Vogue. He asked me for a quote. “Are you kidding me? Really?” I owned a store, Basic, that carried the stuff that people wanted to wear—the purple hair dye and Doc Martens.
Sometimes 16-year-old boys might be trying on a pair of Doc Martens, and one of our salespeople, Tammy Watson, would say, “Yeah, Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, do you know who he is?” The boys’ eyes would light up, and they’d say, “Yeah?”
“Well, he was in here last week and bought that exact same pair of cherry-red Doc Martens.” “Really?” “Oh, yeah.”
I’d just roll my eyes going, “Oh, God. He was not!”
Kurt Cobain did used to buy hair dye there. Some kid would come in and ask, “Do you know what color Kurt bought recently?” And if we had a lot of, say, cherry red, we’d go, “Cherry red!” It was probably a bit awful, but they didn’t know the difference!
ALICE IN CHAINS in Belltown, Seattle, December 1989. Clockwise from left: Mike Starr, Sean Kinney, Layne Staley, and Jerry Cantrell. © PAUL HERNANDEZ
MOTHER LOVE BONE play the Vogue in Seattle, January 1990. From left: Jeff Ament and Andrew Wood. © PAUL HERNANDEZ
PEARL JAM, first publicity shoot, Seattle, 1991. From left: Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, Eddie Vedder, and Dave Krusen. © LANCE MERCER
THE GITS at Venice Beach, January 1993. From left: Andy Kessler, Steve Moriarty, Mia Zapata, and Matt Dresdner. © MICHAEL GALEN NICHOLS
7 YEAR BITCH play the Satyricon in Portland, Oregon, 1992. From left: Elizabeth Davis-Simpson, Valerie Agnew (obscured), Selene Vigil-Wilk, and Stefanie Sargent. © DAVID C. ACKERMAN
THE MELVINS AND L7 on tour together, October 1994. From left: Buzz Osborne, Jennifer Finch, Suzi Gardner, Dee Plakas, Dale Crover, Donita Sparks, and Mark Deutrom. © 1994 JENNIFER FINCH
NIRVANA at the U.K.’s Reading Festival, August 23, 1991. From left: Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl. © ED SIRRS
BABES IN TOYLAND at the Waterloo Village, New Jersey, Lollapalooza stop, July 1993. From left: Lori Barbero, Kat Bjelland, and Maureen Herman. © DANNY CLINCH
HOLE in Seattle, early 1994. From left: Kristen Pfaff, Eric Erlandson, Courtney Love, and Patty Schemel. © KAREN MOSKOWITZ
SINGLES STAR MATT DILLON (left) and director Cameron Crowe on set, 1991. © 1991 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ALICE IN CHAINS in Capitol Hill, Seattle, late 1993 or early 1994. From left: Sean Kinney, Layne Staley, Jerry Cantrell, and Mike Inez. © KAREN MOSKOWITZ
SCREAMING TREES at Myrtle Edwards Park, Seattle, 1996. From left: Mark Lanegan, Gary Lee Conner, Barrett Martin, and Van Conner. © ALICE WHEELER
GRUNTRUCK at the Georgetown Steam Plant, Seattle, 1990. Clockwise from bottom left: Scott McCollum, Tom Niemeyer, Ben McMillan, and Tim Paul. © LORI GARNES
PEARL JAM AND PRESIDENT CLINTON meet at the White House, April 9, 1994. From left: Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, President Clinton, and Eddie